Pete DeOlympio
The Vibrary

The Marketing Odometer

Marketers get a lot of grief for asking graphic designers to “make it pop” or make the already enormous logo “more prominent.”

We deserve to be mocked about this. We’ve earned it.

Marketers need to make a point to give better feedback. Also, “I personally don’t like it” isn’t feedback. It’s criticism. And it helps precisely nobody. Give your designer something they can work with, OK? Please?

That said, marketing gets plenty of the same sort of thing.

Sales needs more leads. But also better, more targeted leads. And could they cost less to acquire?

You know, marketing stuff.

Most of these requests are perfectly reasonable on their own. But after you’ve heard them enough times, you develop a sort of internal translation.

The same way “can you make the logo bigger?” is phrased as a question only out of politeness, and can eventually sound like an indictment of your entire profession, so too can “we need more leads” eventually sound like:

“What would you say you do here, anyway?”

And that’s what the Marketing Odometer is for.

Below is roughly what might be going through a marketer’s head, depending on their mileage.

Marketing Odometer

Can you update this pitch deck real quick?

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Mileage

A critical deal hangs in the balance and requires my expertise.

Miles endured